Hunger Games

[Donovan]

Dismissed this as kid-oriented twilight/Harry Potter garbage, but when I found the first book in my pile of free e-books I read it and was very pleasantly surprised. Dark, ominous and with writing that in my opinion was better than Potter and WAY better than the Twilight stuff. I ripped through all three books and even with the teen love/angst subplot it was good enough that I really want to see the film now. Anybody else a fan? I recommend the books highly...

 

[Cassie]

I have them in my free ebooks ALSO... but I killed the ereader somehow

 

['Gear]

I saw the trailer and worried about the same rewashed, plodding The Island style boy meets girl, biological success saves the world nonsense there seems to be so much of these days.

As far as the books go - Probably better but you know I don't read fiction.

Rental?

Cake will probably watch it with you if you tell her to make you a sandwich.

[sorry couldn't help myself]

 

[Mentalist]

I like post-apocalyptic fiction and was teetering on downloading this but decided against it after reading the Wiki entry on it. I might give it another chance now Dono has suggested it and after I finish reading "John Dies At The End" by Mike Wong which I also highly recommend.

 

[Donovan]

It was definitely better than I expected it to be, and they don't go overboard with the "Used to be America" stuff. They paint a very satisfying picture of a world where not much is pleasant, but where people more or less learn to put up with just about anything. As a jaded reader I'm not easy to please, but this was good work. Hope the movie doesn't fuck it up...

 

[Fuddlemiff]

I saw the trailer (or it could've just been a teaser) and I couldn't understand wtf it was about. People get selected from the population to play some kind of deadly games? It looked nice enough, though. That dude had some awesome facial hair.

 

[curiousa2z]

Other than Dono, I only know three people who have read the books. All three unequivocally praised them . on my list now.

 

[Donovan]

Short version synopsis: the story is of a distant future North America, long after the current governments have vanished. At some point everything was divided into specialized districts that produced certain goods, and about 75 years prior to the story they commenced fighting against their capitol to the point of nuclear exchange. Lots of death and destruction followed, the capitol won, and one district got obliterated. As a reminder of the death "the rebellion" caused, the capitol makes each of the defeated districts surrender two kids a year by lottery and they are sent into an arena where they kill each other for televised amusement and gambling. The books follow one particular tribute who gets sent into the Hunger games.

Extremely well written books.

 

[Fuddlemiff]

Well why didn't they just say so!

 

[Donovan]

"Hey! Come watch this movie where the premise is horrible gory deaths of pubescent children! Fun for the whole family!"


I'm thinking the marketing guys had a tough time selling that...

 

[CaptainWacky]

I'm sure I'll watch the movie illegally at some point! (I have way too many books on my mental "must read" list.)

 

[Yub]

I came upon these with the hoopla for the upcoming movie a few months back. Read them as PDFs then bought the books. Re-reading them now.

I was completely unimpressed upon purchase. Plastered on the front cover and the rear are huge Stephanie Meyer endorsements. There's a Stephen King one under the rear Meyer one. The content within the covers is well beyond standing up on its own feet to need not one but two endorsements from a POS hack like her.

Not to mention the way the media is treating the books and movie like it is another Twilight-esque affair. Team Gale? Team Peeta? WTF? If I was Suzanne Collins, I'd look into a new agent.

The whole thing makes me worried for the movie. I hope it's up to snuff.

 

[headvoid]

Apparently they have removed some blood splatters, gory bits and also any trace of integrity to get it a 12A rating in the UK. This is to hit, I presume, the twilight fans.

The integrity was particularly stubborn to remove.

 

[Ilyanna]

If anyone manages to get past that stubborness, it's Hollywood.

 

[Donovan]

That's really too bad. The whole Twilight gimmick was why I dismissed the film and books but the books are way better than Meyers can do. Be a shame if they jack the movies up...

 

[Cinch]

Hunger Games is an excellent series. One that I recommend to students and there aren't many YA novels that I push. Nothing like Twilight except age of the characters. For starters, Collins can actually write.

 

[Yub]

BUMPITY BUMPITY

Just watched the movie and my fears weren't realized. Pleasantly surprised as they changed very little, expanded on some things and didn't feel the need to push the love triangle in everyone's face. If you haven't read the books, you got the gist. I have and I was delighted by the tiny touches of things done by certain characters in line with who they were.

 

[Donovan]

One of the things I really liked about the books is that the action heroine is a legit female character. Anybody who's ever written any fiction knows how hard it is to make a female character who isn't either a lovesick potential hostage waiting for a bodice-ripping hero, or a pair-of-tits-in-a-bikini-with-a-big-gun. I was impressed and I'm glad to hear they didn't screw that up.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I watched the movie. It was quite good! It did a good job of creating an almost believable dark future America. Jennifer Lawrence was very good as the lead and Woody Harrelson was fun too. Even the romance angle was done quite well as there was the element of the evil producers influencing it and you're not quite sure if Catnip really does love him or if she was just trying to get medecine. Some things probably could have been expanded on though (I imagine they were in the book.)

I probably would have liked it more if I was a teenage girl, granted, but I'd like everything more if I was a teenage girl. I really want to be a teenage girl.

 

[Love Child]

I am still not sure If I will see this movie or read the book. Bumping for future in case I do.